Chapter 13 Cracks in the Foundation #2
So why wasn't he immediately excited?
The answer arrived before he could stop it.
Liam.
Mason groaned and rested his forehead against the steering wheel.
Of course.
Everything seemed to lead back to Liam lately.
The realization would've been annoying if it wasn't so terrifying.
Because suddenly the timing felt impossible.
Three months ago, this decision would've been easy.
Take the opportunity.
Move if necessary.
Build the future he'd always wanted.
End of discussion.
Now nothing felt simple.
Because now there was someone else to consider.
Someone whose smile occupied far too much space in his head.
Someone whose future mattered to him.
Someone he was steadily falling for despite every attempt not to.
The realization followed him all the way home.
And unfortunately, it only grew stronger.
Over the next several days, Mason reviewed numbers.
Contracts.
Partnership details.
Potential earnings.
Everything looked promising.
Objectively speaking, accepting would be the smart decision.
Financially responsible.
Professionally ambitious.
Exactly the kind of choice he'd normally make.
Yet every time he imagined saying yes, one uncomfortable thought returned.
Liam wasn't part of that future.
At least not realistically.
The younger man still had graduate school decisions ahead.
University.
Parents.
An entire life waiting to unfold.
Mason had no right to ask him to build that life around someone else.
Especially not around him.
The idea felt selfish.
Dangerously selfish.
The thought lingered.
And once it arrived, it became impossible to ignore.
A few days later, Mason found himself sitting across from Liam at the kitchen table.
The younger man looked exhausted.
University stress.
Parent stress.
Future stress.
The usual collection.
Yet he still smiled when Mason walked through the door.
The sight immediately warmed something inside his chest.
Which only made everything harder.
Because Liam deserved possibilities.
Options.
Freedom.
Not a thirty-four-year-old plumber carrying a failed marriage and a truckload of baggage.
The realization settled heavily.
Across the table, Liam noticed his silence.
"You're doing it again."
Mason looked up.
"What?"
"Thinking."
The younger man pointed accusingly.
"With the face."
"The face?"
"The worried face."
Mason laughed despite himself.
The conversation moved on.
Yet the thought remained.
Because lately every time he looked at Liam, he became increasingly aware of the age difference.
Not the number itself.
The life stages.
The opportunities.
The futures still available to him.
Liam was standing at the beginning of everything.
Mason wasn't.
The realization felt impossible to ignore.
The following week only made things worse.
Graduate school emails continued arriving.
Professors discussed opportunities.
Classmates talked about internships.
Every conversation seemed to reinforce the same uncomfortable truth.
Liam's life was expanding.
Opening.
Growing.
Mason's life already had roots.
Responsibilities.
History.
The comparison felt unfair.
Yet he kept making it anyway.
One evening, Tom called again.
The partnership offer remained open.
Not forever.
But long enough.
"You're overthinking this."
Tom sounded amused.
Mason hated when people were right.
"Maybe."
"Definitely."
A pause followed.
Then the older man asked the question Mason had been avoiding.
"What's really stopping you?"
For a moment, silence filled the truck.
The honest answer sat painfully close to the surface.
Eventually Mason gave it.
"There's someone."
Tom immediately laughed.
"There it is."
The response annoyed him.
Mostly because it sounded relieved.
As though emotional complications were easier to understand than business ones.
Maybe they were.
The conversation ended shortly afterward.
Unfortunately, the question remained.
What was stopping him?
The answer wasn't complicated.
Liam.
Always Liam.
The realization should have made things clearer.
Instead, it made everything worse.
Because the more Mason cared about him, the more convinced he became that Liam deserved better.
Someone younger.
Someone without history.
Someone who didn't hesitate every time the future came up.
Someone who wasn't constantly calculating risks.
The thought became impossible to escape.
And slowly, almost without realizing it, Mason started protecting himself the only way he knew how.
Distance.
The change happened gradually.
A few fewer texts.
A little more focus on work.
Conversations ending slightly earlier.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing obvious.
Just enough.
Enough to create space.
Enough to remind himself not to get too comfortable.
The strategy should have felt familiar.
After all, he'd done it before.
Built walls.
Created distance.
Protected himself from disappointment.
Instead, every step felt worse than the last.
Because now he knew exactly what he was giving up.
Liam noticed quickly.
Of course he did.
The younger man noticed everything.
One afternoon, Mason caught him watching from across the room.
Concern lingered openly in his expression.
The sight nearly shattered Mason's resolve.
Nearly.
But not completely.
Because fear remained stronger.
Fear of holding Liam back.
Fear of becoming another mistake.
Fear of asking for something he had no right to ask for.
By the end of the week, the distance had become impossible to ignore.
And despite how much it hurt, Mason convinced himself it was the right thing to do.
Liam deserved someone whose future aligned naturally with his own.
Someone uncomplicated.
Someone without one foot stuck in old mistakes.
Someone who wouldn't eventually force impossible choices.
The logic sounded reasonable.
Even noble.
Unfortunately, it didn't make him feel better.
It didn't stop him from missing Liam's messages.
Or looking forward to seeing him.
Or wondering what would happen if he stopped fighting for once.
Because deep down, beneath all the fear and self-doubt, Mason already knew the truth.
Walking away wasn't protecting Liam.
It was protecting himself.
But admitting that would mean confronting something far more frightening than a business opportunity.
It would mean admitting how much Liam actually mattered.
And he wasn't ready for that yet.
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